Listen to my little pep talk, instead of what that person said

Reprinted from my Times Union blog.

I’m riding my bicycle to work earlier in the month, obeying all traffic laws. When I get onto the main drag, I heard this yelling behind me. There was this yahoo in the shotgun seat of the car, screaming some unintelligible thing to me. Well, not exactly IN the seat, but with his torso halfway out of the window. It wasn’t angry yelling, it had the mocking, and somewhat crazed tone of Woody Woodpecker. Since I wasn’t in the car’s way, I can only surmise it was some sort of comment about… well, I’d be speculating.

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

What's It To Ya?

I tend to have a rather laissez-faire attitude towards other people’s action, unless it’s harmful or venal or otherwise stupid. Why can’t I get the same courtesy? And it’s always the little stuff that gets on my nerves.

Item: I ride my bike part of the way to work, then catch a bus most of the rest of the way

TW3, or how Johnny Depp wrecked my Friday

There was this TV show in the 1960s called That Was The Week That Was. It was on NBC TV, in 1964 and 1965, based on a 1963 British show of the same name, which satirically summarized political events. Sometimes, life feels particularly out of kilter, maybe like a Tim Burton movie.

Saturday: I spent shopping with my father-in-law. I must say that I almost never shop in malls – they make me verklempt – but went to two of them that day. One, the evil Crossgates, I had been to only once in the past decade or more, and that to a free movie. It’s unfortunately the only place around here with an Apple store, which did fix my father-in-law’s computer problem. Then we went to Colonie Center. Both of these places were amazingly crowded, especially in the parking lots, which makes me think the financial crisis must be over.

March Ramblin'

For my birthday this year, I had come across this Facebook thing whereby people could contribute $10 in my name to the American Red Cross. I picked them specifically, not only because they do good things, but because they helped me possibly save a life. Back in May of 1995, I successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on an older woman in my church at the time who was choking on some meat, without breaking her ribs. I learned that at a Red Cross training that I took in high school.

Anyway, some people did this, some people were confused by how to do it electronically and instead gave me checks. Hey, it’s all good.

And that was before the Japan earthquake, and aid organizations such as the Red Cross in whatever country you are in can use your help even more.

Still, I got a couple gift cards, one from Amazon, one from Borders. So I got my fix of new music

I'm Walkin', Yes Indeed

In some very specific ways, it has been a difficult year for me. One of my great joys was playing racquetball at the local YMCA. I did that from December 1982 until it closed at the end of April 2010. My racquetball buddies shifted to Siena College’s courts, and I tried that for a couple weeks, but it proved to be untenable, schedulewise. In any case, now that I’m taking the Daughter to school every weekday, it wouldn’t have worked out, even if I were still had the Y as an option.

Well, at least I have my bicycle. Well, I DID